2. The importance of knowledge of cultural context in studying foreign languages

Keywords: language, cultural context, studying language, the role of a teacher, aim of teaching languages

References: Bednarek 2012, Bouzek 2008, Lustig – Koester 2010, Corbett – Thornbury 2010

How does the following quotation demonstrate that studying a foreign language and studying a foreign culture are closely linked?

 "It is often assumed that learning a second language means learning a second culture and that patterns of thinking and feeling have to be re-directed. Learners are to be schooled into new values and moulded into new behavioural patterns. … Learning a foreign language does not mean losing one´s identity and assuming new cultural roles. Rather, it entails having a clearly defined identity, a strong sense of self, a ´healthy ego´." (Porto, M. Integrating the Teaching of Language and Culture. In MOUNTFORD, A., WADHAM-SMITH, N. British Studies : Intercultural Perspectives. Essex : Longman, 2000, p. 91).

Provide an example of a cultural behaviour pattern of your own culture and a culture of a language you are familiar with.

Which cultural values are the most important in your culture? Which cultural values are the most important in the culture of the language you are familiar with? Make a list of the five most important social values.

What role does an educator play according to the following quotation? What should educators provide, and how should they provide it?

"Would it not then be vitally important for educators, especially for those in the field of foreign languages and literatures, to instill in their students a sense of cross-cultural awareness by providing them with the tools for identifying their own cultural value orientations as well as those of others?" (Ortuño, M. M. Cross-cultural Awareness in the Foreign Language Class: The Kluckholm Model. The Modern Language Journal. [online]. № 4, 1991. URL: www: http://www.jstor.org/pss/329494)

What is the aim of studying a foreign language? What is a student supposed to learn, and what is he or she supposed to understand?

How would you explain the following requirement set by Russian lingua-cultural specialist V. M. Shaklein that "while studying a foreign language, a student should be able to learn to comprehend the language through the eyes of a native speaker?"